EPOXI

Two intriguing investigations -- One flight-proven spacecraft

Gallery

2007 EPOXI Flyby of Earth

Caption:The spacecraft will be coming in from the nightside and going out on the dayside of Earth. The groundtrack approximately shows where the spacecraft will be visible. But remember, the spacecraft is coming towards Earth and then passing it. Much like a car coming down the highway towards you, at first, it does not seem to move much left or right, but then there is the sudden rush as it passes you. Therefore the best opportunities will be in Australia just before perigee. After perigee, the spacecraft will be in daylight.
-- Trajectory is plotted from 18 hrs before perigee to 18 hrs after.
-- Perigee is at ~19:30 UT 31 Dec
-- Ticks on the s/c trajectory are separated by 1 hour
-- "P" is at S/C perigee
-- "C" is the Canberra DSN station
-- S/C moves from right to left (generally) with time